Meeting report...

Minutes of Scribblers meeting held on Tuesday 21 April 2015

Present: Dave, Dick, Beryl, Liliane, Tony, Richard, Jane, Suzy, Caz, Mairead, Tom, Tony, Cathy

Apologies: None

The tremendous turnout for the meeting meant we didn’t finish until close to 10pm – our thanks must go to Richard and Jane who waited patiently until the last two slots to read out their work; both pieces were well worth the wait, as I’m sure all the listeners will agree.

Thanks to Jane and Tony for bringing tasty goodies to celebrate their recent birthdays, and to Mairead for supplying us with seriously chocolatey biscuits!

Tony and Beryl had to leave the meeting very early as they had commitments elsewhere. Suzy too was unable to stay for the entire evening.

Items of interest:

Update on Les: Caz told us that he will not be going home from hospital this time, but to a care home, as he is no longer able to live independently.  Caz will let us know where he moves to, but at present, (as far as we know) he is still on Woodbridge Ward in Ipswich Hospital. I know we all feel for him at such a difficult time. Cards and visits will be much appreciated by him.

Ruth Dugdall’s evening at Scribblers: Jane confirmed that Ruth will join us on 7 July, so the meeting that night will be ‘An evening with Ruth Dugdall’. Guaranteed to be a good night!

Reviewing Sunday papers on Radio Suffolk: Barry hasn’t heard anything from them yet, but Dave assured him they will be in touch.

Choice of topic for homework: Dick suggested that instead of making this decision hurriedly at the end of a meeting, a better system would be for the first person chosen to read out their work to pick a topic for next time. That way the decision could be rather more considered. All agreed, and it fell to Liliane to choose; her preferred topic for next time is ‘Sharing’.

Homework pieces with an historical theme:

A superb range of stories, and all of them so very different.

NB – if I’ve missed any synopses, I apologise – my system had a bit of a blip yesterday, so I may not have received them all.

Tony: Soho – no synopsis available

Beryl: Beloved and Faithful

In the 12th century Nicola de la Haye inherited her father's estates at the age of 17, becoming castellan of Lincoln Castle and before long Sheriff of Lincolnshire, an unprecedented appointment for a woman. In 1217 she withstood a three- month siege of the castle by the French, thus turning the tide of the war. 

Liliane: The Ancestor - no synopsis available

Cathy: A city in flames

Exhausted, a young man collapses on the muddy bank of the Thames in the relative safety of Tower Wharf, and contemplates his part in the hopeless struggle to fire fight and save lives during the Great Fire of London in 1666.

Suzy: The hat that no-one wanted - no synopsis available

Tom: The Burning - no synopsis available

Mairead: Winter comfort - no synopsis available

Dick: The problem of the Poles

WW2 is recently won. Churchill is concerned about the injustice of Stalin’s present behaviour towards Germany. Over dinner with his wife Clemmie, Winston suggests that Britain might now need to go to war with Russia. Sparks fly, and he rapidly tries to persuade her that he is joking; but is he?

Dave: Introducing Speedway racing to Ipswich

The first motorcycle races in 1904; rejected attempts at Portman Road; racing at Cranes, Nacton Road; failure at a Bramford Road site; finally success on Foxhall Heath after a bizarre noise test.

An unbelievable 1931 wager between two Ipswich dirt track riders and flour-bombing pilots in an event at Dovercourt!

Barry: My shoebox of history - no synopsis available

Richard: In defence of Karl Marx

Marx was an academic made prominent by the times he lived through and vilified for what was done by others in his name. There is something to gain from reading his work: he gives us an opportunity to review the way society is organised and is still alive in his theories.

Jane: First kiss - no synopsis available

Next meeting: Tuesday 5 May, when the topic for 1000 word homework is ‘Sharing’

Hi Scribblers... 

Les has been transferred from Ipswich hospital to a care home in Felixstowe. It is Cotman House , Garfield Road, Felixstowe IP11 7PU. Visiting is from 9.30am until 5pm and then from 6.30 for the evening.  Les has a phone in his room and can be reached on 01394-672084 although you will have to ask for him. Let us all hope he settles in well and will be well cared for.

Our next meeting is on 5th May when the homework assignment is to write up to 1,000 words on 'SHARING'.

Meantime here are a few items that may be of interest...

Dave.

I am the Visitor Experience Officer at Sutton Hoo and I am contacting you regarding our Storytelling Festival in June and a writing competition that we are running in the lead up to the festival.

I would like to invite you to share the brief (attached) for the competition with your group members.

If you have any further questions please get in touch.

Kind Regards,

Rebecca Herod

Visitor Experience Officer

Sutton Hoo

t   National Trust, Sutton Hoo

- Sutton Hoo, Suffolk IP12 3DJ(   01394 389703

* rebecca.herod@nationaltrust.org.uk

8 www.nationaltrust.org.uk

I am writing to you from Legend Press, the leading independent publisher in the UK to talk to you about our annual bursary prize for writers called the Luke Bitmead Bursary.

The prize was set up in honour of Luke Bitmead. His debut novel was the first novel Legend Press published but sadly, after struggling with depression, Luke committed suicide. The award has been set up by his mother in partnership with us to support and encourage the work of struggling writers, and is the UK’s biggest prize for unpublished authors. This is an award that we are very proud to run and I am emailing you today to let you know about it in case any of your writers would be interested in entering.

Submissions must be adult fiction, and only completed novels will be considered. Full guidelines can be found on our website.

Closing: Submissions open 1st May until 1st August.

Prizes: A publishing contract with Legend Press and a £2,500 cash bursary.

Entry Fee: Free to enter.

Competition Page: http://www.legendtimesgroup.co.uk/legend-press/365-luke-bitmead-bursary

Please let me know if you need any more information

Kind regards,

Jessica

---

Jessica Reid
Publicity Manager
Legend Press and Paperbooks
[Part of the Legend Times Ltd Group]

Head Office: The Old Fire Station, 140 Tabernacle Street, London, EC2A 4SD
Tel: 0207 300 7370

Read our daily blog at: www.legendpress.co.uk

Watch our regular Legend Bites Vlogs at http://www.youtube.com/user/LegendPress
Follow us at @legend_press

Guest post: Bookselling in the Internet age

April 22, 2015 By Rosie Pearce Leave a Comment

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We’re delighted to welcome Helen Bott, of Felixstowe’s Treasure Chest Books, back to the blog! Her subject today is the impact of the Internet on bookselling, and how it can be both a blessing and a curse for independent bookshops…

Seeing the festival tickets go on sale online makes me think about the impact the Internet has had on the second hand book trade. It’s something our customers mention to us a lot, and there’s no doubt that things have changed considerably since we started selling second hand books 15 years ago. Back then there were still lots of shops and very few Internet dealers; now you can buy virtually any book you want online (often for as little as 1p) and the number of shops has drastically declined.

From a bookseller’s point of view, the Internet is a bonus as it opens up a much wider market. We have 10,000 books listed on our own website and 6,000 on Amazon, and we also sell on other websites. Every day I take at least 2 sacks of mail to the post office – recent orders have been from Australia, Chile and most of Europe. The Internet allows us to sell books that might not sell here in Suffolk: for example, today’s orders include books on a hospital railway in Lancashire, carp fishing, magic mushrooms and Rudolph Hess. It brings people to the shop, as it has a wider reach than the old J. R. Hartley Yellow Pages scenario and we also source a lot of our stock this way: recently we have trundled off in our van to buy books in Co Durham, London and Birmingham, as well as all over East Anglia.

Of course, there is a downside. There are dealers on the Internet who will automatically price their book at 1p less than yours, while others put ridiculous prices on a book because nobody else is listing it (we once saw a dealer in the USA asking 1 billion dollars for a book). Some dealers take no account of the condition of the book: we have seen books listed as ‘not necessarily with all pages’ and some dealers turn to ‘book napping’ – they list other people’s books at a higher price, then if they get a buyer they then order your book and sell it on at the higher price they are advertising. It’s not strictly illegal, but it’s certainly frustrating!

So why do we still have a bookshop instead of a warehouse and a website? There are practical reasons: having a shop gives us storage space, and it also brings in books for sale. We can sell a lot of books, especially fiction, children’s, cookery, travel etc. cheaper as a shop customer has no postage to pay. But more importantly, we love having a shop and meeting customers, and we believe that book lovers want to browse, pick up books they’ve not seen before and chat about their purchases. You can’t do that on the Internet, so let’s hope there’s still a place for bookshops for years to come.

Tonight's meeting...

What a terrific meeting - somehow historical work brings the best out of our writers, and with the best attendance for some considerable time we had a tremendously diverse set of stories.

News of Les was not so good, it is understood he will be transferred to a care home in the next few days but which one, as yet, is undecided.

Our next meeting is on 5th May when the homework assignment is to write up to 1,000 words on 'SHARING'.

Until then...

Keep Scribbling!!!

Suffolk Reading Festival and Prole News

Tonight's our 'historical' meeting so hopefully we'll see you in The Room at the Top at 7.30pm!

I'm hoping we'll see Caz and Mairead with updates on Les...

See you later...

Dave

SUFFOLK READING FESTIVAL BROADCASTS THIS WEEK 

Weds 22 Apr 1900-1930 
FXR - Felixstowe Radio 107.5fm or via the internet 
Program 64 
Sword of the Kings by Tony Shearman  
Floating in the Wind by Tony Shearman
The Morrison Shelter by Beryl Sabel
Performers: Beryl Sabel, Ryan Guilder, Alan Dix, Brian England, Andy Sindle,
Stella Day, David Miller, Sheila Martin, Angela Silburn, Peter Guilder.

Fri 24 Apr 1230-1300
Ipswich Community Radio (ICR) 105.7 FM or via the internet
Program 57
The Sword of the Kings by Tony Shearman
The Road Hill House Murder by David Morrison (Theme by Sarah Jane Scouten)
Rallying Cry by Tony Shearman
Animals/Lightning by Jack Wilkinson
Performers: Giles Meehan, Ryan Guilder, Stella Day, David Miller, Debbie Coveney,
Sheila Martin, Peter Guilder, Martin Jarvis, Brian England, Alan Dix,
Su Stedman, Alison Miller

Hope you enjoy them

SUFFOLK READING FESTIVAL - NEXT MEETING

Will hold our next meeting and recording session at the Victoria Studios on
Friday May 1st. Hope to record dramatised versions of a couple of thriller stories. and maybe some odd bits for Sword of the Kings and if available some short stories.
The meeting will be at 7.30 (or 19.30) if you prefer 
Hope to see you then

Cheers

Tony.

Hello from Prole, Poetry and Prose. We hope the information contained below will be of use to your members.

Submissions

We are open to submissions all year round. We aim for a four week turnaround – though if a piece of writing is shortlisted, a final decision can take a little longer. Full submission guidelines are on our website.

Prolitzer Prize

We have just opened for entries for our annual, prose writing competition. Brief details are below, full details on the website.

Prize: Winner: £200, publication in Prole; 2 x runner up: £50, possible publication in Prole 18; publication on the Prole website

Judge: Jaki McCarrick. Entries are anonymised prior to judging.

Open: April 1^st 2015

Closes: October 1^st 2015

Details: Open in style or form. Unpublished only. Word limit 2500.

Fees: £4.00 for one entry, £3.00 each for further entries.

How to enter: Via our website (preferred) www.prolebooks.co.uk – or by post to: P Robertson, 27 Thornton Avenue, Heaton, Bolton, BL1 5PJ

Payment can be made by PayPal on website, or by cheque in GBP, made out to P Robertson

Full details on our website.

Latest Issue

Prole 16 is now available from our website. It is packed with first rate fiction and poetry.

Other publications

In Caboodle, we’ve put together six short poetry collections into one publication. We’ve had two very successful launches: Sheffield and London and great reviews of the collection are starting to come in. We may be partisan, but it is excellent.

Wendy Pratt’s Museum Pieces is also making waves and bringing a very talented writer to a wider audience. Wendy is certainly a writer to look out for.

Both Caboodle and Museum Pieces are available from our website.

The Devil’s Tattoo is Brett Evans’ first pamphlet. As we don’t publish our own scribblings, Brett went through the editorial process with Indigo Dreams http://www.indigodreamsbookshop.com/#/brett-evans/4588677100 where The Devil’s Tattoo can be purchased. If you like Prole, you’ll love this. If you’d like a signed copy – contact Brett at this email address.

Brett Evans and Phil Robertson

Co-editors, Prole-- 

Website: www.prolebooks.co.uk  
Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Prole/236155444300?v=wall   
News blog at:  http://prolebooks.blogspot.com/   
Twitter at:  https://twitter.com/#!/Prolebooks   
Reader/writer blog:  http://readwriteblog.prolebooks.co.uk/  

Our next meeting

A reminder that our next meeting is on Tuesday next, 21st April at 7.30pm in The Room at the Top. It is the historical meeting which means that you select the period of history you are happy with and produce your work of up to 1,000 words at the meeting. This is usually a very interesting theme especially as it may involve a little bit of research. Good luck and look forward to hearing the results of your labour of love. 

No further news on Les at present but will let you know in due course how he is progressing. 

Keep Scribbling 

Dave  

Update on Les

I've heard from Caz that Les is currently in Debenham Ward (visiting hours between 3 and 8pm daily) of Ipswich Hospital.

Les mentioned that he would not be going home again but instead will go into a care home. We will have to wait and see how he progresses and when and which care home he will be placed in.

Keep sending your thoughts to him please,

Dave

Les

I heard from Caz a while ago that Les has been re-admitted to Ipswich Hospital. No details yet but will forward them on as soon as I hear.

Dave

SUFFOLK READING FESTIVAL BROADCASTS

We hear that Les is back at home now though which is good news. Waiting to hear how is getting on.

SUFFOLK READING FESTIVAL BROADCASTS THIS WEEK
Weds 15 Apr 1900-1930 
FXR - Felixstowe Radio 107.5fm or via the internet 
Program 63 
Sword of the Kings by Tony Shearman  
Floating in the Wind by Tony Shearman
Mates by Richard Payne
Performers: Beryl Sabel, Ryan Guilder, Brian England, Angela Silburn, Peter Guilder, Alan Dix, David Miller, Sheila Martin.

Fri 17 Apr 1230 - 1300
Ipswich Community Radio (ICR) 105.7 FM or via the internet
Program 56
The Sword of the Kings by Tony Shearman
The Road Hill House Murder by David Morrison (Theme by Sarah Jane Scouten)
The trouble with Scruff by Beryl Sabel
What is the sun?/ Special Occasions by Jack Wilkinson
Performers: Giles Meehan, Ryan Guilder, Tony Shearman, David Miller,
Sheila Martin, Stella Day, Debbie Coveney, Alan Dix, Alison Miller, Beryl Sabel,
Robin Saunders.

Hope you enjoy them 

Minutes of Scribblers meeting held on Tuesday 7 April 2015 

Present: Dave, Beryl, Liliane, Richard, Suzy, Dick, Barry, Mairéad, Cathy

Apologies: Tony, Jane, Caz.

Items of interest:

Sunday paper review for Radio Suffolk:

Richard told the group that he’d enjoyed reviewing the Sunday papers on Radio Suffolk recently, despite the extremely early start.  Barry is also keen to be involved, so Dave gave him contact details etc, and will also notify Radio Suffolk himself about Barry’s interest.

Three Scribblers get into print!

Dick has had a poem published. A while ago, someone who knows Dick’s talent as a poet asked him to write a poem for them. However, it wasn’t until Dick had agreed to their request that he discovered the theme was ‘refuse collection’! Undaunted, he produced ‘The Bin Man Cometh’, which was recently published in the magazine ‘Tips for Poets’, published by Wendy Webb.  We’re all hoping he’ll bring a copy of the poem in for our enjoyment!

Barry’s was the ‘Star letter’ in the May edition of Writing Magazine. 

Richard has had two letters printed in The Guardian in a space of four days.

Les:

Currently on Debenham Ward at Ipswich Hospital, but may be transferred back to Felixstowe in next few days – no real decision yet. Sure he’ll appreciate more visits wherever he is.

Ruth’s book launch:

One more reminder that our own Ruth Dugdall is launching her new book, ‘Humber Boy B’ at Felixstowe Library at 7pm this Saturday, 11th April – let’s see how many of us can go along and support her.

Homework pieces, on the topic of ‘Horticulture’:

A truly difficult theme, we all agreed, but one which brought forth really interesting work.

Barry: My normal day – no synopsis available

Dick: Secret Garden – prose

Lord Ridley, wealthy textile merchant, acquiesces to his wife’s request to have the bland gardens of their massive estate redesigned. The important and costly landscape artist hired to do the work is unable answer Lady Ridley’s questions about the final design for the gardens, as he doesn’t actually know himself!

          Acute Horticultural Blues – poem

The woes of a retired man who finds that despite reading appropriate books and following   

            horticultural guidelines, gardening is not the relaxing hobby it is purported to be,thus  

            he is diagnosed by his doctor as suffering from Acute Horticultural Blues.

Dave: Needing attention

Whatever happened when Lady Arabella ran naked through the shrubbery chased by the whooping head gardener? Whatever happened after father began an affair with Arabella in the woods? They were alleged suicides with rat poison. Arabella turned her charms my way so would rat poison be the death of me?

Richard: Horticulture

A truck driver is interviewed about his life on the road and how he ends up with a suspended sentence while driving for Norfolk Horticulture. Interviewer loses objectivity and joins the driving profession as a result.

Suzy: The history of horticulture

An explanation (????) of the creation of growing plants and thus, horticulture,         showing that there is no contradiction between the Big Bang theory and Darwin's Theory of Evolution.

Cathy: It were magic

Elderly Molly recounts her childhood move to Suffolk during the 1930s depression when   her family came to work at a horticultural co-operative at Newbourne, and tells how, when the rest of her family returned to their Norfolk roots after only a few years, she remained in Suffolk, eventually marrying an Italian prisoner of war.

Liliane: A future in horticulture

Grandfather Eddy runs a Garden Centre, together with his youngest daughter and husband. There are two grandsons who already have a future in horticulture mapped out - well, at least their grandfather hopes they will continue the business.

Mairead: The day horticulture died – no synopsis available

Beryl: The horticultwist

A mother takes her disabled daughter out regularly in her wheelchair to enjoy the flowers in the park. The child has difficulties with speech, and when she decides that she would like to take up horticulture when she grows up, the closest she can come to pronouncing ‘horticulturist’ is ‘horticultwist’.

Our next meeting is on 21^st April, when the homework is a 1000 word historical piece, based in a period of our own choosing. 

Cathy

Horticultural meeting...

A difficult topic it may have seemed but the Scribblers all came up with interesting and thought provoking angles on the subject of horticulture. Once again a good meeting was enjoyed by those who attended.

Our next gathering is on Tuesday 21st April for 1,000 words on history. The choice of period is your own be it from pre history up to almost the present time. This has been an interesting topic in the past and has sometimes involved a little bit of research... it all makes the meeting so interesting.

Until then,

Keep Scribbling!!!

Tonight - and Writing Raw...

Well tonight sees our meeting on the homework theme of Horticulture at the Library. Start time is 7.30 as usual. Hope to see you there.

This Saturday evening Ruth will be at the Library for the launch of her new book 'Humber Boy B' which is surely going to be as good as all her other novels.

News about Les... I understand he is now on Debenham Ward at Ipswich Hospital. Visiting times are from 3 until 8 pm daily.

Keep Scribbling!!!

Dave

The April Edition of WritingRaw.com is NOW online! Stop in and discover a new voice today… Help spread the word and share this with anyone who enjoys the written word. We are looking for submissions for the May issue – fiction of all styles, poetry, essays and other assorted writings, and book promotions. Here is April’s Table of Contents:

FICTION

·         A Flawed Man by Carissa Chesanek: Locked up inside the state penitentiary for a crime he didn't commit, David is left with no one to trust, including his lawyer and best friend Mike who may be hiding secrets of his own. With no one by his side, David's fearful he'll never be set free, leaving him to take drastic matters into his own hands.

·         Alter Ego Meets Soulmate by Jennifer Jo Fay: A woman blogger who begins to go to a lighthouse and she gets locked in by a killer and discovers two bodies. She fears he will come back for her.

·         Cigarette Money by Joe Romano: Out of work and almost out of cigarettes, a man goes to extremes to feed his addiction and his family.

·         Confirmed by Brian Hartman: Dave Riggler, a handicapped teenager, goes on a Catholic school retreat. He has a single question, with profound implications, on his mind. 'What about Christie?'

·         Face of War by Joseph Grant: It takes 20 years to build an identity and only 3.5 seconds to destroy it. Such was the case for Sgt. Pedro Gonzalez running supply transports in southern Afghanistan when a roadside bomb obliterated much of his face. Now with his war over and a new face, Pedro Gonzalez is finding the peace he fought for is sometimes just as difficult as the war he barely survived.

·         Frances Cochran Dead Too Long by Tom Sheehan: Twenty-four hours after the mutilated body of attractive Frances Cochran, nineteen year old bookkeeper was found in a thicket near the Salem-Lynn-Swampscott line police were seeking the driver of a '34 or '35 Chevy with yellow trimmings. It took an ex-Marine and a cop for 45 years to get to the murderer and his long range intentions.

·         Mack’s Winter by Dorman Nelson: Mack's Winter follows a young man's journey into manhood. Mack is no different than all the young men going west. He is the stranger, the intruder and how he handles himself will allow him to survive and learn from new experiences. But will he?

·         Ginger Rogers Once Played Tennis in North Vancouver by John Joyce: It is a fictional story based on fact. All references about Ginger Rogers and George Gershwin are true.

·         Running From the Law by Leah Mueller: A semi-autobiographical tale of thwarted love and marijuana entrepreneurship, set against the backdrop of early 1980's Chicago. The characters are all running from a variety of terrors, both internal and external, without ever arriving at a specific destination.

·         Sleeping Dogs by Dan Boylan: A village cop finds a woman dead in her bed and an admission of causing the death of a soldier which she has managed to keep secret. He realizes that if he reports the death little will be served except a disinterment, autopsy, inquest and great deal of court work for a legion of lawyers. He decides to keep her secret and destroys her confession. Make sure you read part 2.

·         Statute Of Limitations by Bob Smith: What happens when you discover a childhood friend has grown up to be weird, the kind of teenaged nerd who makes an easy target for bullies? Is there a Statute of Limitations on friendship?

·         The Most Wonderful: Time of the Year by Stephen J Lord: A Christmas wish.

·         Trench Boots by Larry Duncan: In February of 1920, Joseph Barrett is discharged from United States Army with little more than a pocket full of train vouchers and the pack on his back. Still in uniform, he spends the day wandering the streets of Baltimore, a city more foreign to him now than the far flung rubble of Europe. After boarding the train that will take him through the first leg of his journey back home, he meets Harlow Chase, a charismatic salesman who may be trying to sell Joseph more than a new pair of shoes.

·         Upstate by Iris N. Schwartz: It is 1971, and, in a New York State hotel, a young girl meets a Vietnam vet with whom she has much in common.

SERIAL FICTION

·         The Vegan Witch's Toad by Sherrie Theriault: Chapter 2

·         Through A Child’s Eyes by R.E. Heinrich: Chapter 1

POETRY

·         Accommodations or, Advice for the Disingenuous by Craig Kurtz

·         And So Death by Tom Montag

·         Baby, Be My Babel by James Walton

·         Banjo Traces by Thomas Michael McDade

·         Chitter-Chatter by Poornima Laxmeshwar

·         Dear Brother by Brían William Mannion

·         In and Out by Dean Meredith

·         Next Stop! by Juliette Beswick Pokletar

·         She Is A Suffragette by Strider Marcus Jones

·         The Big Let-Down by John Grey

·         The Cameleer by Brandon Marlon

·         The Grave by Sandy Elizabeth Nutter

·         Vanguard by Lorraine Voss

·         Water Covers Rock by David C. Schwartz

ASSORTED

·         Author Interview: Yolanda Christian by Nalini Priyadarshni

·         Cafe Con Oscar by Erika Gisela Abad Merced

·         Let's Swim to Eel Pie Island by John Joyce

·         Sandwiches by G David Schwartz

·         The Souq by Elaine Rosenberg Miller

·         Thoughts on an Independent Scotland by Brian Judge

REVIEWS

·         Between the Sheets - This month, Ditch and Weeb review: Everything Matters! by Ron Currie Jr.

·         Crosshairs by Thomas J. Berry: Reviewed by AllBooks Review

·         Room by Emma Donoghue: Reviewed by Weeb

·         The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton” Reviewed by Weeb

CRACKED RIB: Rib's little neck of the woods here on WritingRaw. Discover her unique stream of conscious thoughts, helpful Rib Tips about anything and everything, and Words From Rib - her poetry. Don't EVER look for Kardashian news in her column!